Obsidian Basic Formatting

SOURCE - Basic formatting syntax - Obsidian Help

Learn how to apply basic formatting to your notes, using Markdown. For more advanced formatting syntax, refer to Obsidian-Advanced-Formatting.

Paragraphs¶

To create paragraphs, use a blank line to separate one or more lines of text.

This is a paragraph.

This is another paragraph.

Multiple          adjacent          spaces







and multiple newlines between paragraphs.

 Multiple adjacent spaces

 and multiple newlines between paragraphs.

Headings¶

To create a heading, add up to six # symbols before your heading text. The number of # symbols determines the size of the heading.

# This is a heading 1
## This is a heading 2
### This is a heading 3
#### This is a heading 4
##### This is a heading 5
###### This is a heading 6

Bold, Italics, Highlights¶

Text formatting can also be applied using Editing shortcuts.

Formatting can be forced to display in plain text by adding a backslash \ in front of it.

**This line will not be bold**

\*\*This line will not be bold\*\*

*This line will be italic and show the asterisks*

\**This line will be italic and show the asterisks*\*

Internal Links¶

Obsidian supports two formats for internal links between notes:

• Wikilink: [Three laws of motion](Three laws of motion.md){#22124dce27fb95658587ad0c30dd4a60}
• Markdown: [Three laws of motion](Three%20laws%20of%20motion.md){#2f4ab4e8dd132824fb9aac14d48f7e82}

External Links¶

If you want to link to an external URL, you can create an inline link by surrounding the link text in brackets ([ ]), and then the URL in parentheses (( )).

[Obsidian Help](https://help.obsidian.md)

Obsidian Help

You can also create external links to files in other vaults, by linking to an Obsidian URI.

[Note](obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=Note.md){#88a56125f7bfb5b0c22a301b1da424fe}

Escape Blank Spaces in Links¶

If your URL contains blank spaces, you must escape them by replacing them with %20.

[My Note](obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=My%20Note.md){#8ae3f8f7691776c8c4a5d058a1cc78a1}

You can also escape the URL by wrapping it with angled brackets (< >).

[My Note](<obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=My Note.md>){#cb5f809f235d24d757eba3d07fb8505c}

External Images¶

You can add images with external URLs, by adding a ! symbol before an external link.

![Engelbart](https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Basis/images/Engelbart.jpg)

You can change the image dimensions, by adding |640x480 to the link destination, where 640 is the width and 480 is the height.

![Engelbart|100x145](https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Basis/images/Engelbart.jpg)

If you only specify the width, the image scales according to its original aspect ratio. For example:

![Engelbart|100](https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Basis/images/Engelbart.jpg)

Quotes¶

You can quote text by adding a > symbols before the text.

> Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society.

\- Doug Engelbart, 1961

Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society.

- Doug Engelbart, 1961

Lists¶

You can create an unordered list by adding a -, *, or + before the text.

- First list item
- Second list item
- Third list item

• First list item
• Second list item
• Third list item

To create an ordered list, start each line with a number followed by a . symbol.

1. First list item
2. Second list item
3. Third list item

1. First list item
2. Second list item
3. Third list item

Task Lists¶

To create a task list, start each list item with a hyphen and space followed by [ ].

- [x] This is a completed task.
- [ ] This is an incomplete task.

• This is a completed task.
• This is an incomplete task.

You can toggle a task in Reading view by selecting the checkbox.

- [x] Milk

- [?] Eggs

- [-] Eggs

Nesting Lists¶

All list types can be nested in Obsidian.

To create a nested list, indent one or more list items:

1. First list item
   1. Ordered nested list item
2. Second list item
   - Unordered nested list item

1. First list item
2. Ordered nested list item
3. Second list item - Unordered nested list item

Similarly, you can create a nested task list by indenting one or more list items:

- [ ] Task item 1
    - [ ] Subtask 1
- [ ] Task item 2
    - [ ] Subtask 1

• Task item 1
  • Subtask 1
• Task item 2
  • Subtask 1

Use Tab or Shift+Tab to indent or unindent one or more selected list items for easy organization.

Horizontal Rule¶

You can use three or more stars ***, hyphens ---, or underscore ___ on its own line to add a horizontal bar. You can also separate symbols using spaces.

***
****
* * *
---
----
- - -
___
____
_ _ _

Code¶

You can format code both inline within a sentence, or in its own block.

Inline Code¶

You can format code within a sentence using single backticks.

Text inside `backticks` on a line will be formatted like code.

Text inside backticks on a line will be formatted like code.

If you want to put backticks in an inline code block, surround it with double backticks like so: inline code with a backtick ` inside.

Code Blocks¶

To format a block of code, surround the code with triple backticks.

```
cd ~/Desktop
```

cd ~/Desktop

You can also create a code block by indenting the text using Tab or 4 blank spaces.

    cd ~/Desktop

You can add syntax highlighting to a code block, by adding a language code after the first set of backticks.

```js
function fancyAlert(arg) {
  if(arg) {
    $.facebox({div:'#foo'})
  }
}
```

function fancyAlert(arg) {
  if(arg) {
    $.facebox({div:'#foo'})
  }
}

Obsidian uses Prism for syntax highlighting. For more information, refer to Supported languages.

Footnotes¶

You can add footnotes¹ to your notes using the following syntax:

This is a simple footnote[^1].

[^1]: This is the referenced text.
[^2]: Add 2 spaces at the start of each new line.
  This lets you write footnotes that span multiple lines.
[^note]: Named footnotes still appear as numbers, but can make it easier to identify and link references.

You can also inline footnotes in a sentence. Note that the caret goes outside the brackets.

You can also use inline footnotes. ^[This is an inline footnote.]

Comments¶

You can add comments by wrapping text with `inline This is a block comment.

Block comments can span multiple lines. %% ```

Backlinks: